Australian charities and government departments spent €100,000 on her before the truth emerged.

Judge Paul Conlon threw out her attempt to gain early release, saying a psychologist’s report described Azzopardi as a ‘very difficult historian’ who laughed at the doctor’s attempt to establish her first name.

He said: “It is disturbing in the extreme that at 29 years of age she still tries to pass herself off as an adolescent.”

The judge said she had wasted valuable resources that could have gone to children in need.